It’s happened to all Windows users. You’re using your computer and Windows decides you need to reboot, hassling you with pop-ups that continue to bug you all day long. If you step away from your computer and miss the pop-up, Windows will automatically reboot your computer. You may come back to your computer and find that all your open programs are gone, as Windows decided to reboot without your permission. This can be maddening.

There’s a good reason for rebooting after updates, as rebooting ensures that security updates actually take effect. But Microsoft has gone too far — they shouldn’t be hassling Windows users and rebooting their computers without permission. Windows 8 handles these forced restarts with a longer grace period, but still pesters you and eventually reboots your computer automatically.

First, you’ll need to open the Registry Editor. Press Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog, type regedit into it, and press Enter.

When the registry editor appears, navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU registry key.

You’ll likely find that the last two parts of the key — the WindowsUpdate\AU parts — don’t yet exist. You’ll need to create them yourself.

To do so, right-click the Windows key, point to New, and select Key. Type WindowsUpdate and press Enter. Then, right-click the WindowsUpdate key, point to New, and select Key. Type AU and press Enter. This will create the correct registry key structure.

With the AU key selected in the left pane, right-click in the right pane, point to New, and select DWORD (32-bit) value. Type NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers and press Enter to name the new value.

Double-click the value you just created and type 1 into its value data box. You can then click OK — you’re done in the registry.

You can now reboot your computer and your policy changes will take effect. However, you probably don’t want to reboot your computer! Luckily, you can make these changes take effect without rebooting.

First, open a Command Prompt window as Administrator. On Windows 8, press Windows Key + X and select Command Prompt (Admin). On Windows 7, open the Start menu, search for Command Prompt, right-click the Command Prompt shortcut, and select Run as Administrator.

Run the following command to make your changes take effect immediately:

gpupdate /force

Disable Forced Restarts With Group Policy

If you have Professional, Ultimate, or Enterprise version of Windows, you can make this tweak in an easier way. Most Windows users won’t have this option and will have to use the registry-editing method above. Both of these tweaks work in the same way, but the group policy editor is a bit more user-friendly.

First, open the Local Group Policy Editor. Press Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog, type gpedit.msc into the dialog box, and press Enter to open it.

Navigate to the following folder in the left pane: Computer Configuration\Administrator Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update

In the right pane, double-click the “No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic update installations” setting. Set the setting to Enabled and click OK.

After changing this setting, either reboot your computer or run the gpupdate /force command in the way we mentioned above.

Windows will inform you of updates via a system tray icon and notification bubble. When you’re ready to install them, you can click the icon and have Windows install them — they should install fairly quickly, as Windows will download them in the background ahead of time. When the updates are done installing, you’ll be prompted to reboot.

With this method of installing updates, you can have Windows install only updates when you’re actually ready to reboot your computer. If you see the update notification, you can ignore it until you’re ready to reboot — Windows won’t automatically install the updates and start nagging you or restart your computer without your permission.

Why Microsoft Made This So Hard

Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t make this easy — in fact, they buried this option deep in the registry and group policy editor where only Windows system administrators will normally be able to find it. The automatic-rebooting “feature” was added to Windows XP in the darkest days of Windows security, and Microsoft was desperate to ensure people who installed updates rebooted quickly so more nasty worms like Blaster and SasserA Brief History Of The 5 Worst Computer Viruses Of All TimeA Brief History Of The 5 Worst Computer Viruses Of All TimeThe word "virus" and its association with computers was affixed by American computer scientist Frederick Cohen who used it to describe "a program that can 'infect' other programs by modifying them to include a possibly...Read More wouldn’t spread. We live in a different world these days, and Windows is secure enough that we can afford to wait a bit before rebooting if we’re in the middle of using our computers.

Microsoft attempted to make this less of a hassle with Windows 8, but they didn’t go far enough as Windows 8 will still automatically reboot your computer. At the very least, this setting should be much easier to change.

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Maxwell

February 14, 2017 at 5:49 pm

Flat-out doesn't work at all on Windows 8. I've tried this with two different PCs running Windows 8 and it doesn't work on either. Followed each and every instruction down to the capitalization of folder and registry names, no luck.

Great article and found it immensely useful. The only criticism I have is that you mentioned the easier method for doing this for Ultimate users deep down in your article AFTER you went through the step by step for non-Ultimate users.

So of course I went through the step by step, editing the registry and was all done when I came to the instructions for Ultimate users. Just a tip - Perhaps put a link, or at least a short note at the top of your article as most Ultimate users will have done the first instructions before seeing that!!!

Anyhow, sill, brilliant method, thanks so much. I lost a lot of work last night written in several unsaved notepads and determined not for it to happen again.

When the registry editor appears, navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU registry key. (If you can't navigate it or if does not exist, create it.)

To do so, right-click the Windows key, point to New, and select Key. Type WindowsUpdate and press Enter. Then, right-click the WindowsUpdate key, point to New, and select Key. Type AU and press Enter. This will create the correct registry key structure.

Note: Read and follow the instructions above to avoid any error afterwards...

It is absolutely *moronic* that this is not a setting accessible from the Windows Update GUI on 7 Home Premium (computer was a gift to me and I WOULD NOT and WILL NOT "upgrade" to 8).

Thank you for the help! I prefer to download updates automatically, but Windows 7 has restarted my computer with absolutely no prompting whatsoever TWICE on me before my eyes, ruining work and a video game session.

In my case, I keep hitting that postpone option until Windows (Win7 Enterprise) finally does a forced reboot - but it saves the current state and opens up all my emails and applications after re-starting. Is there a way to do that kind of reboot manually? If so, I'd have no problem rebooting!

Thanks Chris. I did everything you suggested, however still had the annoying reminder popup.
I found this, open admin cmd and type "sc stop wuauserv" without quotes. and hit enter.
This instantly removes the popup, for how long I don't know, and will you have to do this after each new start of your system I don't know yet.
I keep a folder on my DT with notes labeled with various commands so it's easy to just right-click/rename, copy/paste.

This helped me a lot.
Other instructions didn't include the gpupdate /force step, and instructed me to reboot, the exact thing I was attempting to prevent as I backed everything up to my external hard drive.

All methods that Chris Hoffman explains, work like a champ. It is only the users like "Mark" above who should not attempt registry editing, because THEY DON'T READ INSTRUCTIONS IN THEIR ENTIRETY". These are the people you find in forums everywhere complaining about one thing or another that doesn't work.

I just followed your steps and wanted to say thank you, as this post seems to be timeless. I wasn't interested in shutting down the updates altogether, but the forced restart is AGGRESSIVELY obnoxious (and never ever comes at a convenient time like the middle of the night while I'm not using my device. Almost seems like they wait for me to get started on something before *bloop* update popup. Ugh, I digress). Anyway, following your register instructions to the tee was pretty straightforward and my computer did not brick :) Thank you again!

To say I Hate windows auto update would be an understatement. I could be in the middle of a presentation and suddenly that abusive popup. It was like mommy telling you it was bed time or something in the middle of a great movie. The nerve of Microsoft to force anyone to do anything with their property. Can we be treated like adults? Thank you!

This is not advice to be followed or to be given out lightly in a forum like Make Use Of and the author should have consider the serious problems editing the Register can cause before writing an article like this.

Editing the Register is not for the unknowing and Microsoft makes this difficult and cryptic for a reason. One can do a lot of damage and make their computer completely unusable if they make even a simple error in editing the Register.

This is not "hipster hacking" like applying a filter to your Instagram snaps. Editing the Register in Windows can and will cause a lot of problems if done wrong.

You are NOT being advised to disable Windows updates but to manually install them. This is sound advice as it is best to wait and see what problems show on the web. Microsoft are not infallible and serious side effects can occur. Of course, if you are not disciplined enough to monitor blogs etc and do the installs, then continue to allow automatic updates.

He said to change how it works not to completly disable it. He asks you to change the update method to: "Download but let me chose when to install". This is by no way disabling. Read carefully and with understanding.

This is the automatic maintenance function starting - the default setting is for 0300 hrs and to wake the computer if necessary. To change this go to the Action Centre and expand the Maintenance tab, click on change settings then either choose a different time (when your computer will normally be in use) or un-check the "wake computer" box.